The convenience fee to renew a car registration increased from $5 to $8 this week. The fee may increase to $10 in the future, according to a maximum fee schedule approved by the County Commissioners Court last week.

The average cost to renew an auto registration is $72. At contracted offices, customers pay about $80.

REPORTER

Aileen B. Flores

In addition, the convenience fee to transfer a title, replace it or correct it, goes from $10 to $15, depending on the service.

For title replacements for example, there is a $10 convenience fee in addition to the $7 charge from the county.

Several office managers were not available for comment.

Convenience fees do not apply to tax-titling services provided at the County Tax Assessor-Collector's office in Downtown and its satellite offices in Northeast, Fort Bliss and Ysleta.

"The county still maintains the four service tax offices for citizens who do not want to pay the extra amount to a private deputy," said County Attorney Jo Anne Bernal before Commissioners Court last week. "They still have the county's four offices, so they can pay the lesser amount. If they choose to pay the higher amount for convenience, you know, that's their decision."

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The request to increase the convenience fees was made by County Tax Assessor-Collector Victor Flores, who said the private businesses were about to stop providing the services for the county because they were not making money.

Contracted offices used to charge a $5 convenience fee for renewals, but nothing for the other services.

Flores said contracted offices in other counties in Texas such as Travis County (Austin) and Bexar County (San Antonio) are charging fees in excess of $40 for the same services.

Flores said the contracted offices are very helpful to the county since they absorb half of his office workload. There are 11 contracted offices in the county.

"These companies do close to 50 percent of our work, and certainly it allows us to not have to pay overtime and benefits," Flores said. "We feel that these offices are obviously very fruitful to this community. Should we lose these offices, we are going to have to find the way to make up for the work that they do and really probably the only way to do this is to open up another tax office, staff it and supply it, which runs into millions of dollars to initiate this office and whatever it takes to run it," he said.

Flores said it would cost the county an initial $3.5 million to open up a new branch.

Frank Ortiz, chief deputy for the tax assessor-collector, said contracted offices also work extended hours and are open Saturdays and most holidays, which make them convenient for the public.

He said the new fees are temporary until the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles regulates convenience fees that contracted offices are allowed to charge.

For more information, visit epcounty.com/taxoffice/titlingagencies.htm